The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile, a copying machine, and a sheet feeding device which is selectively installed in the image forming apparatus as required.
Generally, the image forming apparatus is provided with handles for lifting it, at right and left sides (or in front and back, the case is the same in the following description) of the apparatus.
Japanese Design Registration No. 1183592, for example, discloses an image forming apparatus in which such handles are provided at the same level.
Generally, a center of gravity for the image forming apparatus is rarely positioned at the center in a horizontal direction, but usually biased to the left or to the right.
In the image forming apparatus, in which the handles for lifting the apparatus are provided at the same level, there is such a problem that in a case where two persons, for example, lift and carry the apparatus, a larger weight is exerted on the person who handles the handle at the side where the center of gravity is biased.
There is also the same problem described above in the sheet feeding device which is adapted to be attached to the image forming apparatus to feed a recording medium thereto, and to store recording media.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-329270A discloses an image forming apparatus or a sheet feeding device, which is provided with a separating hook for feeding an uppermost one of recording media stack in a main body of the image forming apparatus.
In such an image forming apparatus 1 or sheet feeding device OP, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, a handle 2R′ at a side where a separating hook 3 is provided and a handle 2L′ at an opposite side thereto is provided at the same level. Therefore, in a case where a center of gravity G is biased toward the side where the separating hook 3 is provided, there is such probability that a bottom 1a of the apparatus 1 at the side where the separating hook 3 is provided may first strike an installation face FL, when the apparatus 1 is placed on the installation face FL.
When the bottom 1a of the apparatus 1 at the side where the separating hook 3 is provided is first struck the installation face FL as shown in FIG. 2B, this will enhance such probability that recording media S stacked inside the apparatus 1 may rapidly move toward the separating hook 3 due to a shock at the time of placing the apparatus 1 on the installation face FL, thereby colliding with the separating hook 3, and the separating hook 3 may be damaged by the collision.
The separating hook 3 is provided for the purpose of applying flexure to both corner parts of the uppermost sheet of the recording media S thereby to separate the uppermost sheet from lower sheets of the recording media S, and so, accuracies of the separating hook 3 in shape and in position are important. Therefore, in a case where the accuracies in its shape and position become out of order, receiving the impact of the recording media S, recording media S may not be properly separated, and that the recording media S may not be fed to a proper position of a main body 1c of the image forming apparatus 1.